FredNats routed 14-2 by Shorebirds

The Fredericksburg Nationals lost their third straight game on Saturday night, falling 14-2 to the Delmarva Shorebirds.

Michael Cuevas (L, 0-1) entered the game with a 0.98 earned run average, but struggled against a Delmarva offense that managed nine runs and seven hits against him in only 2.0 innings.

A José Sánchez fielding error opened the door right away for the Shorebirds in the first, and Yorkislandy Alvarez pounced with a two-run single to take a 2-0 lead. A seven-run second inning featured a three-run homer from Hudson Haskin and a two-run homer from Ryne Ogren.

The Fredericksburg offense couldn’t do much against Noah Denoyer (W, 4-2), who earned the win with 5.0 innings of two-run ball. His lone mistake was a two-out, two-run double to Sánchez in the fourth to draw the score to 9-2.

Delmarva added a run in the fourth off Tyler Yankosky on an Andrew Martinez double, but went down in order in the fifth as Aaron Barrett pitched another dominant relief outing on his rehab assignment. The Shorebirds had more success against Matt Merrill in the sixth, scoring four runs on a wild pitch, a groundout and a Mason Janvrin two-run homer.

Leif Strom pitched two innings of hitless relief for Fredericksburg to keep the final score at 14-2. It marked the fifth game in a row, and 11th in their past 12, in which the FredNats have scored three or fewer runs.

The FredNats wrap up their series against the Shorebirds on Sunday afternoon. First pitch from Perdue Stadium is scheduled for 2:05, with FredNats On Deck beginning at 1:50 on the FredNats Baseball Network.